Hollyoaks boss on Pete abuse storyline: 'The right thing will happen in the end'

Bryan Kirkwood discusses the long-term plans for the issue-based storyline.

Hollyoaks boss Bryan Kirkwood has revealed the long-term plans for the McQueen family's ongoing child abuse storyline, promising that evil Pete Buchanan will get his comeuppance.

Pete (Kai Owen) is currently involved in a secret inappropriate relationship with his youngest stepdaughter Cleo McQueen, having previously groomed her when she was underage. He also sexually assaulted Cleo's older sister Porsche when she was 15.

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Dark scenes airing this week will see Cleo (Nadine Mulkerrin) agree to sleep with Pete after he manipulates a situation to get her alone on Porsche's birthday.

Speaking about the future of the plot, Kirkwood explained: "This is an important story for Hollyoaks to tell. What I've learned about our audience is that they've got a huge capacity and appetite for this kind of hard-hitting story.

"In the past, Esther's attempted suicide and John Paul's male rape were stories that we were told were too difficult to explore in a 6.30pm timeslot - but they proved to be two of our most successful stories ever. Both stories helped to change government policy, which is extraordinary for a 6.30pm teatime soap.

"Bolstered by that, we thought that it was right to tackle the issue of child abuse with the vital audience demographic that most need to understand what abuse is and how to get help, which we do with support around the episodes and by working with the NSPCC.

"We've proved that we can tell this kind of story truthfully but in an appropriate way. To play a serious message amidst the camp comedy of a McQueen's birthday is the best way to tell an important story without the audience feeling they are being lectured."

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He continued: "The right thing will happen in the end, as we want there to be a positive message. There's still a long way to go with the story. There are a half-dozen characters involved, there are yet more secrets to come out, but it's important to say that it's Hollyoaks and the right thing will happen in the end.

"We knew the end point of the story before we embarked on it. It's not one of those Hollyoaks stories that's going to have a 'surprise twist' - it's told truthfully and at an appropriate pace."

The Hollyoaks team have worked closely with the NSPCC while devising the storyline. The children's charity put cast and writers in contact with real-life survivors in the early stages of the story, and still continues to offer advice on scripts.

Kirkwood added: "The main message for this story is 'no more secrets'. The McQueens are everyone's favourite family in the show, but we're going to see that they're also really bad when it comes to keeping secrets from each other.

"This story goes right back to Nana McQueen's childhood, as we played scenes last year where we discovered that Nana once suffered abuse. Since then, generation after generation have kept secrets. Nobody has spoken up and history has repeated itself. What we'd love to do is help families in similar situations to speak up and stop the secrecy."

Hollyoaks airs weeknights at 6.30pm on Channel 4, with first look screenings at 7pm on E4.

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